The Princess & the Count
by Ardina
Summary: She is out to lift the curse. Kill him actually, but it all ends in the final meaningful conversation between the two...


**So there I was bored out of mind during my summer hols at work. All that paper work in front of me and I'm hit by a random scene! Well, to be perfectly honest I was searching for something...ANYTHING...to occupy me while I ran on "autopilot". Besides my present main fanfic sucks and is just depressing the hell out of me...**

**This scene sees Anna and Dracula (I know...bet u never saw that coming) in a conversation. Cor blimey...sounds exciting even to my ears Guvna...**

**0.o**

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**The Princess & the Count**

"What are you, but the Devil's spawn?"

"What are you, but a woman playing warrior?" His pale hands snaked around her slim throat and tightened like a vice. The eyes of the princess drew wide in the strenuous attempt to keep the panic at bay and the growing moisture began to shimmer in the strange light. The dark figured smiled like the malicious demon he was and said, "This is no place for beginners or sensitive hearts, but then again it is no place to be ending either", he lessened the vice grip, "But a place to be starting". The moment his grip slackened completely, the woman with the long and dark hair fell to the ground breathing heavily.

It was a sorry sight that met his eyes. A sorry sight, yes, but one that tugged insistently at his non-existent heart. For a moment the demon was silenced and the man was allowed free thought. It was a rare occasion that he was allowed control over his actions. The all consuming anger was never far away and never at a loss for action. He watched as she was bent over double gasping for precious air. He didn't doubt once that she would wear the imprint of his hand in dark blue around her throat by the morning. He didn't doubt that they would be the first marks he had ever left upon her delicate form either. This continuous battle never seemed to end. Why was that exactly? At some points during their long and heated quarrels, he felt like murdering the woman. The demon in him was more than capable. It was the man that restrained him.

The princess regained her breath and stood before him. She looked straight into the mocking blue depths of his eyes while she said, "A woman playing warrior that you seem to _still _have trouble killing, oh great Count-"

The demon and anger took control of his tortured soul as the scorn in her voice traveled along his senses. He wrapped a single hand around her throat this time and squeezed just to prove a point. In the dark of the forest, she struggled alone against the demon that consumed the man. The princess felt the hard trunk of a tree against her back which provoked the internal battle. The demon saw the look in her eyes and recognized it. She too questioned the fact: "Why did their internal battle never cease?" The man might have given her an answer, but the demon was certainly not going to. The dark figure laughed when she began to claw at his wrists and watched her try desperately to drag in a much needed lung full of air. Her nails scratched and marred the pale perfection of his skin. The blood her actions drew was a tainted one. The action itself seemed a pointless endeavor as the demon healed faster than she inflicted the damage. Eventually, he let go and she dropped once more to the ground.

"Monster", she breathed hoarsely clutching her throat. The woman sat at the foot of a large tree watching the demon with wary eyes.

"What was that Anna?" He raised a hand to his ear to mock her further as she sat in the dirt and dust. Dracula smirked and said, "Look at you". Dressed in his garb of exquisite black, he circled the woman by the tree, "This is a pathetic charade and that comment of yours, my little nest of vipers, was not particularly warranted". The next words he spoke were deliberately chosen, "What have I done to you that you have not inflicted upon me in equal measure?"

She looked up at Dracula with disbelief. How dare he say such a thing? Her entire family was on the brink of limbo for all eternity and he had the stupidity to say such a thing? Was he stupid? No, he was never _stupid. _Cold and calculating, but never stupid.

On the first and most basic level of thought and reaction. She hated him. Anna Valerious made her family proud with the continuing line of hate and the endless cycle of death.

On another level, that surfaced very rarely, his words made sense to her. The demon was evil, but the man seemed to exist. It explained why she had lived for so long, did it not? Why, Dracula would not even be the one responsible for her demise in the end. But that is further from now and the loyalty Anna felt towards her family was surpassed by no other. She gazed at him and was not even able to splutter an answer in the face of his ridiculous statement. Anna failed to put into words all that the Count represented in her life.

He took an opportunity to speak when she failed to express herself. The tones he used were at heavy odds to his previous.

"Your sex", his voice dropped to caress her senses, "Female. You Anna". The demon knelt before the woman and caught her like a wild animal in his mesmerizing gaze, "Such a beauty should have the world at her feet with everything she desires". His cold fingertips made contact with the warm silken quality of her cheek and brushed the dirt away, "Not covered in dirt".

"And you are the once to place the world before my feet?" It was a storm that crashed and raged within her mind and heart. How could such an evil creature, who murdered without a qualm, show such sincerity in his eyes? How could a manipulated and twisted soul belonging to the Devil be soo gentle? There was a storm and it never felt soo real before. It was the sweetest taboo. It was the man and not the demon that toyed with her emotions.

"Perhaps Anna, perhaps I am".

"What a strange world we live in", she commented without thinking.

"With all its ghosts and faces from the years past and present my dear". His gaze traveled from her eyes to the hair that fell in a riotous tumble around her shoulders as he murmured, "Be careful Anna".

"Why?"

"Would you really like to know?" He drawled each syllable.

"Mind games only work on the feeble minded-"

He smiled and looked down at his hands before raising his gaze to meet hers, "How can I forget that you are never feeble?"

"Then don't treat me as such if you can _never_ forget", she spat.

He rose from where he had knelt before her to walk. He did not stray too far from her, but far enough to restrain himself from temptation. The wind rustled the leaves in the trees. An artic chill swept past him, an arctic chill that he never felt.

The soft foliage that she rested upon moved as the wind swept through the trees. She felt the bite of the wind and realized that winter would be here soon. Another season had passed without her family reaching their ultimate goal. She had failed once more to kill the Demon King.

"You know how we stand Anna", he murmured without looking at her. The words softly spoken, but she heard them.

"You stand and I drown".

He said nothing in answer to her comment and continued, "In another time, you and I would have had no ordinary-"

"Don't say it because I don't feel it". He glanced at her briefly and noted the stubborn profile that oozed rebellion. Rebellion and confusion.

Yes you do woman", he turned and began to walk away, "This is no blind faith or sad and sorry dream Anna". The man was not far from her, but began to fade from her vision quickly.

Then he was gone.

She had thought that he had disappeared. Left _her_ alone in the cold forest, but a voice entered _her_ mind and caused a shiver to run down _her _spine that had nothing to do with the wind. It was that forbidden voice that entered her mind and intruded on her thoughts. The voice that had haunted her dreams since she had first met him all those years ago. The tones were spoken with their own unique coloring.

_This is no ordinary love my dear..._

The moment had been short and brief because both had thought there would be others, but who could have seen the coming events? Who could have known that events would turn out the way they did? Only one of the two would remember the conversation and the sensations that were caused as a result. For soon Van Helsing would arrive and things would, well, change.

_Change_

It is hardly an adequate description for what was about to transpire, but for now, it is enough...

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**Wow...well, I can conclude from this that I only feel my writing is "decent" when the characters are suffering...lol...I need help!**

**I mean look at it! A conversation from just before Van Helsing arrives...both Anna and Drac pulled in different directions. **

**His fight with the inner demon that takes him over every now and then.**

**Her mind and heart tearing themselves apart in confusion over him.**

**o.0**

**Not that long. My first crack at writing a scene with Anna and Drac...yes, it did come from a moment of intense boredom, but review. Yes review, and supply me with the determination to write that other darn fic decently!**


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